Blood Tests = Anesthesia?

[Alexandra V]

I'm getting another pair of balls this spring to start breeding them in eventuality, and my current pet has shown no signs of IBD in the four months that I've had him, but I was thinking of getting a blood test for him to rule it out with a bit more certainty before I bring in two more snakes, even though I will be quarantining them for up to a year.

I called around to all the vets in my area that do exotic pets, and was told that in order to take blood from a snake they had to anesthetize it, which immediately scared the hell out of me (and didn't seem to make much sense). Is it true or are they just trying to milk more money out of me?

[ed4281]

I am a vet tech who has worked with exotics at the Bronx zoo, I promise, they do need to use anesthesia on smaller snakes. They aren’t trying to get money from you. In big snakes (retics, burms, anacondas etc) they can use a vein in the tail just like on big lizards. However on smaller snakes they have to do a cardiac stick to get blood very dangerouse and don't do it unless you have too. Also your vet should have told you the only way to check for IBD is by taking tissue samples post mortem. Unless something new has come along that I don't know about. I am currently working in a general practice that sees everything.

[Alexandra V]

I thought tissues post-mortem was the only way too, but I decided to call them to check anyways, and they told me that they could do a blood test, so I believed them even though it didn't seem right... Thanks for the reply, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't think I'll go through with it because of the risks.

[ed4281]

Interesting I will call the lab and see tomorrow we use Idexx they are pretty big so they should know. I wonder, before my current job I was a regional manager for a large veterinary company so there may have been some advancements made. I agree with you though If your pet seems healthy and has been QT'd for an appropriate amount of time I wouldn't worry. Pythons with IBD don't last much more than a month.

[Alexandra V]

Yeah. He's the only one I have at the moment, but he came from a pet store that did have boas, and since I've heard of them being asymptomatic for up to a year (however rare it is for that to happen) I'm a little apprehensive, because I don't fully trust many pet stores.

[dr del]

Hi,

From what I have read ( no first hand experience or knowledge here ) they can test for inclusion bodies in some organs but not finding any doesn't gaurantee the animal doesn't have IBD as the inclusion bodies might simply be somewhere else in the animal.

But given the short life expectancy of ball pythons with IBD I would say if it is still alive at the end of the 60-90 day QT period you are in the clear as far as that one disease stands.

So, while a vet check might be a fine idea for new arrivals, I wouldn't bother paying for that particular test.


dr del

[ed4281]

Ok I just checked with the lab and they said that the only difinitive diagnosis can be made with post mortum tissue samples.

[wolfy-hound]

Even with testing the liver they cannot rule OUT IBD. They can definitively say the snake HAS IBD... they cannot say definitively that the snake does NOT have IBD. They can always say the inclusion bodies were only in the brain, etc. So getting a blood test would not rule out IBD.

Generally I was told(by the vets at UF) that boas can remain asymtomatic for an unknown period of time, being a carrier. Ball pythons however, die fairly quickly.

[don15681]

I'm given you a link that was on talk radio in 09 that had doctor scott stahl, one of the top vets in the U.S. when it comes to exotics, he talks about issues with snakes, mostly ball pythons. it's about 2 hours long and is very good. I tested the link before posting this and it still works. enjoy don

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/reptile...ile-veterinary